In the words of They
Might Be Giants' rollicking
Grammy-winning theme song, "life is
unfair." The inventive and wholly
original sitcom Malcolm in the
Middle has been honored with a
Peabody Award and Emmys for
directing and writing, but if life
was fair, it would have earned an
Emmy for Best Comedy Series, not to
mention statuettes for its
pitch-perfect cast. With his
perpetual "yes, me worry"
expression, Frankie Muniz instantly
earns audience empathy as Malcolm,
whose chances for a normal life are
thwarted not only by his genius IQ
(as discovered in the pilot
episode), but also by his
outrageously dysfunctional family:
Lois (Jane Kaczmarek), his
obsessive, control-freak mother; Hal
(Bryan Cranston), his loving but
ineffectual father; Francis
(Christopher Masterson), his eldest
brother waging his own private war
at military school; middle brother
Reese (Justin Berfield), a
delinquent savant; and Dewey (Erik
Per Sullivan), the put-upon
youngest. As Malcolm observes at one
point, "This family may be rude,
loud and gross, and have no shame
whatsoever, but with them you know
where you stand."
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